Recall and deploy knowledge of the thetre building and machinery and of Medea to help them understand how Euripides exploited state conventions to dramatic effect in this play.
Analyse, evaluate and respond to the implied staging of specific scenes.
Recap previous experience and prior knowledege of Jason and the Argonaunts and Greek drama
Themes in the Medea
A Position of Women
1. in marriage
2.socially and politically
3.their subordination to men
4. their dependence on men
a) the spirited woman
b) the conventional (narcissistic) woman
5. woman's field of action - restricted but important
B Parenthood
1. children destroyed by their parents (future imperilled by)
2. the concerns of parents
a) fathers - to have an heir or heirs
b) mothers - their children's future and the home
3. and security needed for it
4. children made instruments of by by their parents
5. the price of parenthood
6. what parents will do to others for their children
Summary Review Medea
Greek Drama
Euripides' Medea is the most frequently staged of the ancient Greek tragedies. There is an on-line text at the Perseus Project site, with links to explain
people and places if you need more information.
Another version of the myth of Medea and Jason can be found in Pindar's Fourth Pythian Ode, which you can read here on-line. Pindar wrote this befoe Euripides' play.
Medea, a barbarian witch, having betrayed her family to help her lover Jason win the Golden Fleece, now finds him courting another woman, the daughter of King Creaon of Corinth and a "real Greek'. After failing to persuade Jason to return to her, she decides to kill her rival with a gift of poisoned clothing. She also decides to kill her children. King Aegeus of Athens stumbles along in search of a cure for his childlessness. He agrees to grant Medea asylum should she need it. She escapes from Jason at the end of the play on a dragon-drawn chariot given to her by her frandfather Helius, the sun god.
If you know anything about the Argonauts, consider Euripides' use of Jason. How does Euripides fulfill or confound your expectations of these myths. Compare him to other heroes we have studied. Does Jason seen heroic? What is virtuous or sleazy about him? What specifically has he done wrong? What motivates Jason? Note that he only refers to their children as his.
This is still one of the most controversial plays ever written, with its powerful evocations of women's rights and Medea's choice of infanticide. Consider carefully what you think of its awesome heroine. Pay close attention to how and when she comes to decide to kill her children. Consider her reasoning and note when she wavers.
Does Medea remind you or other women in myths? The audience would expect her to be a witch; does Euripides fulfill those expectations, or does he present a more "normal" woman?
Euripides, as Sophocles once said, drew men as they are, not as they ought to be. Do you agree? In what ways are his characters, plots and actions more realistic. Note the extensive space given to "lower" characters like the Nurse and Tutor. Euripides likes to give all the necessary information (or at least it seems that way--be careful) at the beginning of the play, as opposed to Sophocles.
You may have read another Greek drama where the main character is first heard screaming from inside the skene about his or her dishonor. Try to connect that drama to this one. You might find the comparison surprising.
Medea's great first speech is stunnignly modern in its account of the injustices done to women in patriarchal societies. Medea may seem at times a frightening character, but compare her real ethical concerns with the rather shallow and scheming hollows of Creon and Jason. And do you see any significance of her rivial?
Consider the curious scene with Aegeus? Who is he and what is he doing there? What does the curious oracle given to him mean? Do you know who is born from Medea's promise to Aegeus? Think about it. Note where she is going at the end of the play.
At the end of the play, where is Medea? What impact does her position have? Do you think this image is based on Euripides' drama?
Could the poet who wrote Medea have been a woman-hater/mysoganistic?
Greek Tragedians believed that there were things that men should do and thing that women should do ant that the two should not be mixed. Discuss this view with reference to all the Greek tragedies which you have studied. The class could complie a list of ways in which these elements appear and affect the action in the play: e.g. the dehumanising of Medea--is she turing into a god?' her appearance in the sun god's chariot as dea ex machina, Aegeus' visit to Delphi and the phophecy of the oracle, Medea's prophecy to Jason about his death, Jason attributing his success in Colchis to Aphrodite, the oath sworn by Aegeus, the role of supplication--Medea/Creon, Medeaa/Aegeus etc.
http://myweb.wssu.edu/wallr/ENG2301/eng2301medea.htm
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~loxias/oldindex.htm
http://depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/classics/dunkle/studyguide/medea.htm
http://vogt.wikispaces.com/file/detail/Medea+intro.ppt
http://www.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/**medea**.html
http://quizlet.com/2931623/medea-study-questions-eng-2-honors-flash-cards/
http://www.superteachertools.com/jeopardy/usergames/Nov201145/game1320823308.php Medea Jeopardy Game
http://jeopardylabs.com/play/medea-review-jeopardy
Objectives:
Themes in the Medea
A Position of Women
1. in marriage- 2.socially and politically
- 3.their subordination to men
- 4. their dependence on men
- a) the spirited woman
- b) the conventional (narcissistic) woman
- 5. woman's field of action - restricted but important
1. children destroyed by their parents (future imperilled by)B Parenthood
- 2. the concerns of parents
- a) fathers - to have an heir or heirs
- b) mothers - their children's future and the home
- 3. and security needed for it
- 4. children made instruments of by by their parents
- 5. the price of parenthood
- 6. what parents will do to others for their children
- 7. childlssness - a curse or a blessing
1. the battle between men and womenC Divorce
- 2. how children are affected
involving men and godsD Oath-taking & supplication
E The indifference of the gods to right and wrong
F The heroic code
1. for men- 2. for women
the instruments of actionG Hands
- and their power to do good and ill
1. more perspicaciousH The slave - shown superior to the aristocrat
- 2. more loyal
- 3. more moral
1. ambitionI What poisons human relations? (Poison)
- 2. self-centredness
Medea relates to Athens via TheseusJ Past and Present
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Summary ReviewMedea
Greek Drama
Euripides' Medea is the most frequently staged of the ancient Greek tragedies. There is an on-line text at the Perseus Project site, with links to explain
people and places if you need more information.
Another version of the myth of Medea and Jason can be found in Pindar's Fourth Pythian Ode, which you can read here on-line. Pindar wrote this befoe Euripides' play.
Medea, a barbarian witch, having betrayed her family to help her lover Jason win the Golden Fleece, now finds him courting another woman, the daughter of King Creaon of Corinth and a "real Greek'. After failing to persuade Jason to return to her, she decides to kill her rival with a gift of poisoned clothing. She also decides to kill her children. King Aegeus of Athens stumbles along in search of a cure for his childlessness. He agrees to grant Medea asylum should she need it. She escapes from Jason at the end of the play on a dragon-drawn chariot given to her by her frandfather Helius, the sun god.
If you know anything about the Argonauts, consider Euripides' use of Jason. How does Euripides fulfill or confound your expectations of these myths. Compare him to other heroes we have studied. Does Jason seen heroic? What is virtuous or sleazy about him? What specifically has he done wrong? What motivates Jason? Note that he only refers to their children as his.
This is still one of the most controversial plays ever written, with its powerful evocations of women's rights and Medea's choice of infanticide. Consider carefully what you think of its awesome heroine. Pay close attention to how and when she comes to decide to kill her children. Consider her reasoning and note when she wavers.
Does Medea remind you or other women in myths? The audience would expect her to be a witch; does Euripides fulfill those expectations, or does he present a more "normal" woman?
Euripides, as Sophocles once said, drew men as they are, not as they ought to be. Do you agree? In what ways are his characters, plots and actions more realistic. Note the extensive space given to "lower" characters like the Nurse and Tutor. Euripides likes to give all the necessary information (or at least it seems that way--be careful) at the beginning of the play, as opposed to Sophocles.
You may have read another Greek drama where the main character is first heard screaming from inside the skene about his or her dishonor. Try to connect that drama to this one. You might find the comparison surprising.
Medea's great first speech is stunnignly modern in its account of the injustices done to women in patriarchal societies. Medea may seem at times a frightening character, but compare her real ethical concerns with the rather shallow and scheming hollows of Creon and Jason. And do you see any significance of her rivial?
Consider the curious scene with Aegeus? Who is he and what is he doing there? What does the curious oracle given to him mean? Do you know who is born from Medea's promise to Aegeus? Think about it. Note where she is going at the end of the play.
At the end of the play, where is Medea? What impact does her position have? Do you think this image is based on Euripides' drama?
Could the poet who wrote Medea have been a woman-hater/mysoganistic?
Greek Tragedians believed that there were things that men should do and thing that women should do ant that the two should not be mixed. Discuss this view with reference to all the Greek tragedies which you have studied. The class could complie a list of ways in which these elements appear and affect the action in the play: e.g. the dehumanising of Medea--is she turing into a god?' her appearance in the sun god's chariot as dea ex machina, Aegeus' visit to Delphi and the phophecy of the oracle, Medea's prophecy to Jason about his death, Jason attributing his success in Colchis to Aphrodite, the oath sworn by Aegeus, the role of supplication--Medea/Creon, Medeaa/Aegeus etc.